Is Barack Obama Held To a Different Standard?

At the onset of this long political season I thought that the media was fairly balanced in its coverage of each political candidate. This was until the “flag pin” idiocy came up. I have noticed that only Senator Obama is asked why he is not wearing a flag pin. Senators McCain and Clinton are never asked why they do not wear a flag pin. In fact, at the debates, Senator Obama was asked why he was not wearing a flag pin and nobody raised a hair about Senator Clinton’s not wearing a flag pin. In fact, NONE of the reporters asking the question were wearing a flag pin!

What are the reporters insinuating here? It can’t be that they are insinuating that a flag pin is proper attire for Mr. Obama, but not for them, not for Clinton and not for the very reporters asking the questions. In fact, they’re questioning Senator Obama’s patriotism because he does not wear a flag pin. The subject has been discussed ad nauseam on the right-wing radio programs and the mainstream media seems to be taking its clue from the right-fringe groups.

Then, there is the situation with Reverend Wright. Obama is somehow held to answer for every outrageous statements of this preacher who is simply full of himself. Yet, Senator McCain has not been required by the media to atone personally for every inane comment by the preachers who supports him.

The press applies the same double standard when it harps on the fact that Obama just can’t seem to appeal to the “blue collar” working class—code word for white uneducated former core democratic constituency. In fact, President Clinton only won forty-one percent of this very “blue collar” group-the exact percentage of this group that Obama won in Indiana. Yet, the press—and the commentator on CNN and MSNBC political talk programs—has now raised this “blue-collar test” to gospel. There have been predictions that Obama is in trouble if he can’t do something to win these folks over. The folks have been lost to the Democratic Party for at least a generation. Suddenly, Obama cannot win unless he does something that even President Clinton could not do in 1992—but he was elected.

Finally, I admire Senator Clinton, but could you imagine the howls that would be constant for him to quit the race were the math against him that Senator Clinton now has against her?

Double standard?

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©All Rights Reserved.Reproduction is permitted provided credit is given.Lenton Aikins, Ph.D., J.D.Dr. Aikins has traveled widely, lived abroad in Europe and Latin America, recently spending three years in Costa Rica as Director of a Spanish Language school. He holds a Ph. D. in Political Science from University of Southern California, a Juris Doctor in Law from Western State University, College of Law. He is the author of many articles and of While African Americans Slept: Leadership by Parasites, now available at: http://lentonaikins.com, and available in all bookstores July 1,
2008. You can read his blog: Go to: http://lentonaikins.com and click on blog.